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This would look great in an Instagram story,I thought, and then was immediately annoyed with myself. I’d been on the platform barely forty-eight hours, and already I was framing my life based on how it would look on someone’s phone screen?
Not too long afterward, the lane widened into a large dirt area in front of a series of buildings, including two houses and a large detached garage, along with a barn and a tin-sided structure big enough to house a couple of small planes. To one side of the main house stretched a large pond, complete with several flocks of ducks and geese.
All in all, it was a lot more than I’d been expecting. True, I didn’t have much experience with ranches, but for some reason, I’d thought the place would be a lot less impressive.
Chuck parked the truck in front of the garage, although he didn’t bother to pull in. “The spot I was thinking of is on the other side of that field,” he said, pointing toward a grassy expanse occupied by a couple of bored-looking cows. “I’ll show you.”
I nodded and climbed out of the truck, all the while hoping that the sandals I wore would be up to the task of hiking through a cow pasture.
Keep an eye out for any land mines,I told myself as I walked along after him, maintaining a wary eye on the ground beneath my feet. Chuck’s cowboy boots offered a lot more protection than my own flimsy footwear, although I was glad my sandals were securely strapped around my ankles and probably weren’t going anywhere. If I’d been wearing flip-flops, I would’ve been doomed.
We crossed the pasture and came to a gate on the far side. It opened up into a wooded area thick with more oaks, and also cottonwoods and sycamores and hemlocks. Off in the distance, I thought I could hear water whispering to itself as it moved over a stony riverbed.
I sent a questioning look in Chuck’s direction, and he said, “There’s a stream that cuts through the property. It’s not too full at this time of year, but it does flow year-round. Come on — we’re almost there.”
He led me in the direction of the water. Before we got to the stream, however, we reached a large clearing with some half-hearted grass growing underfoot.
“I was thinking you could use this spot for your solstice party,” he told me. “The trees are back far enough that having a bonfire shouldn’t be a problem, and because we’re pretty close to the stream, nothing around here is too dry. What do you think?”
I surveyed the clearing. It wasn’t terribly large, but I still thought you could fit at least a hundred people there easily. The watching circle of trees made the place feel sheltered and somehow mystical. A solstice bonfire reflecting against the overhanging leaves would be absolutely spectacular on a midsummer night.
“It’s great,” I replied. “It’s such a cozy, sheltered spot.” I paused, figuring I might as well point out all the warts before we got too far in our negotiations. “But are you going to be all right with a bunch of strangers tromping through your cow pasture?”
That question only elicited a casual lift of his shoulders. “Oh, I’ll move the cows to a different spot. I’ve got nearly two hundred acres out here, so there’s plenty of room for them to range without having to come anywhere close to that pasture.”
Two hundred acres. That was a decent size, wasn’t it? Considering I’d grown up in a place where lot size was measured in square feet rather than acres, it sure sounded like a big chunk of land.
Maybe there were some other protests I could have conjured. Right then, however, I just wanted to get the matter settled so I knew what was happening and could plan from there. Most of the time, I tried to be pretty loose in my planning, just because I knew the universe was fully capable of lobbing curveballs my way when I was least expecting them. However, this was someone else’s property, and Chuck was already being unbelievably accommodating in offering the place for my ritual.
“Then it’s perfect,” I said. “Thank you so much for doing this for me.”
For just a second, his eyes held mine. Even in the shade under the trees, they were almost startlingly blue. I couldn’t help contrasting them with Calvin’s eyes, which were such a velvety dark brown, they appeared almost black.
The kind of eyes that could hide a whole lot of secrets.
I did my best to banish Calvin Standingbear from my mind. After all, he’d made his choice clear.
And while I didn’t know what Chuck was thinking — I was psychic, but not that kind of psychic — I’d been around long enough to take a pretty decent guess. I got the definite impression that this time around, he wanted someone who was the polar opposite of the cheerleader ex-wife who’d dumped him.
“It’s no problem,” he said easily, and the tension of the moment before vanished as if it had never been there in the first place. “You’re helping to put Globe on the map, so I figure it’s my civic duty to give you a hand.”
“Still.” I paused, then said, “Well, I guess I’d better get back and start planning. It’s four days until the solstice, and there are a lot of logistics that need to get figured out in the meantime.”
Logistics that I honestly had no idea how I was supposed to handle. I’d never planned anything bigger than a surprise fiftieth birthday party for my mother. While I occasionally attended psychic fairs and New Age conferences, I’d certainly never been involved in the planning stages of those events. It was the sort of thing I normally would have been content to leave for someone else to handle.
But since I’d stuck my foot in it with this one, I knew I’d have to put on my big-girl panties and manage things as best I could, even while I had a sneaking suspicion that Josie would be all too happy to take over the logistics if I asked her to help.
“Sure thing,” Chuck said, still in that easygoing way of his. I wondered if he was like that all the time, whether anything ever ruffled his feathers. Maybe not. Despite the cheating ex-wife, it sounded as if everything in his world was pretty well ordered.
We headed back to the truck, and he drove me into town and dropped me off right in front of the shop. As I was stammering my thanks to him once again, he cut me off with a broad smile.
“It’s nothing,” he said, then paused. “Although I wouldn’t mind taking you out to dinner…if you need someone to bounce some ideas off of.”
Before I could reply, he put the truck in gear and pulled away from the curb. I watched him go, wondering exactly what I’d just gotten myself into.
5
Lilith Fair
